


Hoping for Freeman

by Somecallmemichelle



Category: Half-Life
Genre: "the one free man", Action, Canon-Typical Violence, City 17, Combine - Freeform, Gen, Guns, Hazardous Environment Suit, Hazardous Environment Suit Mark V, Hev Suit, Hope, Hopeful Ending, Resistance, black mesa, eight nine one (original character), half life 2 - Freeform, manhacks, mute hero, nova prospekt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:41:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somecallmemichelle/pseuds/Somecallmemichelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some said he was a messiah, that he hadn't aged at all and that he had come to free them. Such rumors sparked hope in the hearts of many.</p><p>The official view was that he was a very dangerous individual, but then who believed the Combine anyway?</p><p> </p><p>The views of an original character on Gordon Freeman, as of the first chapters of half life 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hoping for Freeman

They had called him Freeman, the one Free Man, the one who was controlled by many, and citizen number 891 had to see him for himself. 

 

It was indeed as it was told, Freeman was a one man army, armed with a crowbar and  the HEV suit mark V. Also known as the Hazardous Environment suit, it had been upgraded during those blasted twenty or so years since the Seven year war. When the Combine had entered through the portal, the blasted hellhole that had shown up in the skies of Arizona, and destroyed the forces of every single army on earth in seven hours.    
  
Citizen eight hundred and ninety one bit on the meager meal he had in front of him, acid thoughts in his heads. He couldn’t let those thoughts ran amok though, or he’d end up in Nova Prospekt, hell, he knew that he didn’t want to end up in there, none had returned from there, and the tales of the place that were told gave the air an aura a shimmer of tingling fear to every single one of them. When he wasn’t being observed, citizen eight hundred and ninety one would decree loudly that such a place didn’t terrify him, to the general cheer of his compatriots. Ruskies, americans, it hadn’t mattered in the end, all that was left of mankind was now in those slums, mixed up, hate forgotten.

  
  


Yet such brags rang empty, and both he and his comrades knew it. He was scared shitless of the place, who on their right mind wouldn’t be? The stuff that was told about the place...crap. A man would have to be a fool to run there.

 

The reality of the situation was that before the one Free Man, Gordon Freeman had arrived, the resistance had been in it’s lowest position yet. Crap, they’d seen the Antlions if they strayed too far from the city! And the few who managed to make the crazy trip, or were put in outposts to help those foolish - or brave - Citizen eight nine one didn’t know which, enough to try and do the path to somewhere away from City 17, towards relative privacy, and safety...eight night one envied them, while at the same time pitying it them. Desperation could make a man or woman do anything.

 

There hadn’t been children since the Combine had arrived, they’d made sure of that, with their suppressors. Eight hundred and ninety one missed the feeling of a good orgasm, the feeling of screaming God’s name as he came into a woman, or the feeling of self relief. It would be something, indeed, to feel it again. But above all he missed the feeling of a filled belly.

 

Thievery was punished heavily, the burglar never once seen again, but eight nine one didn’t blame those who succumbed to the temptation. Combines were nothing but calculated, measuring just exactly the amount of food you, as an individual needed to live and giving you not one calorie more. Not like there was much to steal anyway, few kept food in their homes...raids were sure to occur at random times of the day, sometimes more than once, as the Civil Police blasted their doors open looking for someone.

 

Yet Freeman had made it. Somehow. There were plenty of stories surrounding Freeman that he had caused this whole mess - that they should burn him for that. - That he had returned without having appeared to age - that he was a messiah sent to save them.

 

Either way citizen eight hundred and ninety one didn’t place much faith in the rumors. - He’d like to believe them of course, a savior, come to help mankind? But what were the chances of that? He picked up a piece of trash from somewhere in the ground. - Mankind had dwindled in population, but their trash remained, no one set to clean it up. - And tossed it as far as it could go. Barely 10 meters. The can flew, he could do better.

 

He knew, that it was somewhere ‘round here that the resistance had set their first outpost. And while it was not  exactly illegal to be wandering around here. He had been likely been scanned and analysed 4 or 5 times just to get here. He hated the slight buzzing feeling as the light went through him and recognised him in the database, but then eight nine one hated a lot of things.

 

Even the vortigaunts seemed affected by the talk about Freeman. - Those were rare in City 17, and mostly put under the direct control of mind drones. But the arrival of Freeman, or Free Man as they insisted on pronouncing the space had put them in a hushed frenezim.

 

And of course, as something meant to keep quiet, the news of it being him who caused such a stirr had already been widely available to the public. Pr was on the case, assuring people Freeman was a dangerous individual. - But then, eight nine one didn’t think you could make the Combine look good even if you had a gun pointing to your head and threatening to blow your brains off if you didn’t. Freeman had already won the population over just by giving them a sample of hope. Even if he didn’t dare hope, eight nine one had to admit, this was  a pretty impressive manhunt they had going there, the poor bastard might not have even stood a chance.

 

Then he saw him fight, he was in the water drainage area, mindlessly throwing trash into the rotating blades and seeing it get torn to bits. His meal long finished he sent the wrapper of the jelly like substance to the water. It’d float but it’d move toward the blades and be destroyed.

 

Hearing the distinctive noise above him of the manhacks, the wildly agile remote controlled drone that had blades that spinned and sliced at over 5000 rotations per minute, slicing a person in seconds with deep cuts that would very likely hit vital organs. Those little devices were deadly.

 

_ Shit _ \- eight nine one thought, as he went into a section further up ahead where he could take cover in case they were looking for him.

 

Then the orange mass approached, swinging a crowbar at the manhack and throwing it against a wall. Eight nine one pushed himself further into his hiding hole, were he not thought of as an accomplish. He figured out this must be the so much often talked about man called Freeman.

 

The manhack swerved around trying to get its bearings, as it weaved and waved carefully ready to carve into the metal suit and eventually into flesh, Freeman kept pace with it, down in the ground, strafing. He took a pistol from somewhere in his suit, it seemed to come out of the metal, one of the basic ones, that Civil Police weld.

 

Crowbar in one hand gun in another he threw the crowbar to the ground, sensing an opening the Manhack attacked going for chest, a common tactic amongst its kind, when they didn’t go for the neck. But Freeman was ready, he took the safety off the gun and two loud bangs were heard. When eight nine one once again looked, the Manhack drifted lazily a few inches near the calves of Freeman, its blades struggling to rotate at all, Freeman picked up his crowbar and pushed it against the very tip top of the drone’s circular frame, and with a heavy swing, wires flew everywhere.

 

Two more manhacks approached and one of those scanning bots too, eight hundred and ninety one tried to hide further in the hole, lest he be identified. But the sound of battle eventually drew him out.

 

The scanning bot scanned freeman then threw a long white beam at him which was no doubt intensified by the glass in Freeman’s suit. Reinforced Glass. Half Blind Freeman made the mistake of swinging around at where the bot had been rather than where it moved, since he couldn’t see it. Immediately the Two ManHacks attacked, one from the back, one from the front, but Freeman still had his arm and he managed to shove the front one away with a clank of the crowbar, at the cost of  a dent in his arm armor. 

 

With the way momentarily free, he quickly sidestepped and hit the rotating Manhack that had been digging into his back, before it had time to react, smashing it to pieces.

 

Now only one remained. As well as the scanning bot. Freeman grabbed his crowbar more firmly putting the gun in the suit again. The swinging arc was bigger and though the two drones tried to flow upwards he managed to knock them  into one another.

 

The explosion could be felt by eight nine one. He had to get out of there. Freeman stared at the destruction, a blank expression in his face.

 

“You know everyone’s calling you our savior. - he didn’t respond, didn’t nod, nothing. Just stood still with the injuries in his arms, back and chest. -With the way you fought I can believe that!”

 

Eight nine one had been expecting a cocky smile, anything, but nothing came out of Freeman. He tried a different approach.

 

“You know, sometimes I couldn’t even sleep, before you came.” - He ignored the fact he had doubted Freeman a little while ago. - “ I had to cover my ears and pretend I didn’t hear the screams of those returning, but my house was right by the train station.... “- He stood silent, for a few moments. Before finally gathering the courage to ask. - Do you cover them? Your ears? Sometimes, when you can’t bear it anymore? All the groaning and stiffening outside? Barely Beast, Barely human, barely conscious?”   
  
Freeman tensed up, then exhaled a deep breath, it looked like he was about to say something but he just pointed in the opposite direction, the one from where eight nine one had come originally. - “So you will continue then? Save us all from the Combine?”   
  
Finally a reaction, Freeman pushed a hand to the place where his suit had been dented, he pushed his helmet down and then slowly nodded.

 

For eight nine one, that was all he needed.

  
  



End file.
